Irene Cara

Biography

Born: 18 March 1959 in New York, NY [South Bronx]

Genre: Pop

Years Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s

Irene Cara is best known as a singer of movie themes, though she has also maintained an acting career since childhood. Raised by Latin American parents in New York City, she made her Broadway debut in 1967 (at age eight) in the musical Maggie Flynn, and returned to the stage several years later with a role in the off-Broadway production The Me Nobody Knows. By the age of 16, she'd diversified her résumé with TV and film gigs, too, landing roles in the TV mini-series Roots 2 and in blaxploitation...